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Remarkable Friends

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:55:00 +0800

(Romania / Wide Blue World)
I am blessed to be surrounded and nurtured by a remarkable group of people and I just have to share a little bit about some of their accomplishments. This is inspired by the occasion of Lukas’ fifth ...
5 reads

A Long Day

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:08:00 +0800

(El Salvador / Jaime in Peace Corps El Salvador)
I just got back from a shower and yet am still sweating. At about 8:45pm I decided it was getting late and headed for the shower. I stepped over Black sleeping on his back as always and realized t ...
8 reads

България

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:57:18 +0800

(Bulgaria / juliloquy)
Earlier in the month HPR and I presented at Shmoo's pre-K class for Peace Corps week. Well HPR did most of the presenting since he is the one who owns a traditional Bulgarian costume and learned how to play the...
9 reads

Whooping Cough?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:55:00 +0800

(Tonga / MK Squared)
-Whooping Cough?Dealing with illnesses of various sorts is sometimes the expected cost of working in the tropical world and while I don't at all think that we deal with sickness here any more than in ...
9 reads

Letting go (in stages)

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:56:00 +0800

(Ecuador / Lo Rotzim Shikun, Rotzim Ma'abarah)
This afternoon I bid farewell to a dear friend.We had known each other for about four months and really enjoyed one another's company. I always played host and regularly fed it. It was the longest re ...
8 reads

Something Can be Done

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:55:29 +0800

(Philippines / Pioneers! O Pioneers!)
A few days ago I asked my supervisor if I could observe classes other than the ones I teach. I wanted to getter a better picture of the problems that both the students and teachers are facing.
0 reads

A Protracted Expanse of Ocean

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:50:32 +0800

(Philippines / Pioneers! O Pioneers!)
And now there is one less body with which to share the load and the weight drops down heavier on our backs in the dense lethargy of the long path ahead of us.
0 reads

A Random Vignette

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:46:25 +0800

(Philippines / Pioneers! O Pioneers!)
February 26th 2010 It’s been a long time away from site. My entire batch 64 of us in all rendezvoused in Manila for a bit of language and technical training intermixed with a long series of conti ...
0 reads

Dynamite and my 40 Valentines

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:41:04 +0800

(Philippines / Pioneers! O Pioneers!)
I’m feeling incredibly anxious almost as if I have failed my students though I have to giggle at myself for my witty tirade of charades. (Hey desperate times call for desperate measures.) If I co ...
0 reads

Sally Sells Seashells on a Filipino Seashore

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:35:13 +0800

(Philippines / Pioneers! O Pioneers!)
After they practice the sounds I write the complete version of the tongue twister ‘Sally sells seashells on the seashore….” on the board and have the students repeat and practice the tongue twister. This is fun.
0 reads

The State of Education in the Philippines

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:31:48 +0800

(Philippines / Pioneers! O Pioneers!)
The class continues much like this the students mostly silent listening to Christian talk and talk in a language they can barely understand. The students are completely passive; their responses are all copied word-for-word from the book.
0 reads

From aspiring rapper Oussama (singing i ...

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0800

(Morocco / The Whatchamacallit)
From aspiring rapper Oussama (singing in English) and the hip hop club New Generation in Ait Ourir.
0 reads

March Madness

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:39:00 +0800

(Kazakhstan / chris in kazakhstan)
Привет! March is upon us and that means March Madness time which I will be missing out on for the first time ever. Sadly UNC will also be missing out on the NCAA tournament as well. It will ...
14 reads

Cubano

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:50:00 +0800

(Peru / Becoming Her)
Other place to eat a cuban sandwich? Chez Henri and that perfect cuban bar in miraflores...
5 reads

The Peace Corps Family

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:12:00 +0800

(Guatemala / JBrown)
Throughout my life during times of great change times where I have found myself uprooted and planted elsewhere grasping for new soil homes and identities I have often wondered prior to the change ...
30 reads

Untitled

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:09:00 +0800

(Nicaragua / Up Next....Nicaragua! :))
I'll definately write more later i promise calli fronk. But i'm waiting in the PC office so I figured I would just write a little now!Life here is all kinds of wonderful and extremely busy. School ...
0 reads

The burden of trash

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:08:00 +0800

(Kenya / cyotfs)
Back in the states it was so easy to forget about waste. It seemed as though putting it in one of those nice bins was enough to take care of it forever. Life here serves as a constant reminder of h ...
7 reads

Toddlers/ Toubab on Parade

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:07:00 +0800

(Senegal / Staying Sassy in Senegal)
Sundays are usually very chill days here at the Gaye house but today we had a million visitors. Luckily I got a run in before people started coming over but I didn't quite finish cleaning my room be ...
16 reads

Halfway through boot camp

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:02:00 +0800

(Uganda / Iganda? No, Uganda!)
Many people have compared Peace Corps' pre-service training (PST) to military boot camp. In some ways this is accurate: both PST and boot camp are 2+ jam-packed months of preparation for service. A Tr ...
9 reads

Creative… nonfic… wait what?

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:47:13 +0800

(Morocco / Maroc, je t'aime)
I’ve been talking about this a lot with my friends and family lately and my heart sinks a little with each raised eyebrow. This is creative nonfiction friends. It’s my genre.
11 reads

NUMB all over

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:32:00 +0800

(Nicaragua / NiCA-tINe)
Buenas! Today I am on my way back from a lovely stay at a beach called San Juan del Sur. I stayed at this beautiful house that a friend of a friend owns. It was nice to just sit around swim in a pool ...
4 reads

Untitled

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:21:00 +0800

(Benin / Experiments in Truth)
Funny story… 1. Wanting to give something special for my fam when I came back to village last time. I bought 500 CFA of ice (that’s a lot of ice) in the last town with electricity before ...
7 reads

Do not engage.

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:10:00 +0800

(Nicaragua / Land of Lakes and Volcanoes)
A friend of mine wrote on her Twitter that "do not engage" applied to many areas of her life and she said it like it was a bad thing but I honestly think that it might be some of the best wisdom I'v ...
0 reads

Constructive weekend

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:59:54 +0800

(Macedonia / Ellen in Macedonia)
Back in Debar after my first full weekend away in over two months. On the combi ride back the same woman got on in Tetovo with her adorable baby who rode next to me when I moved to Debar in November. She remembered me and apparently her baby did too because he started spitting up [...]
4 reads

Grumpy blogging

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:33:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
For reasons not worth discussing I'm in a lousy mood. But misery loves company right? So I give you Daniel Larison on the Iraq War:Whenever possible I refer to the Iraq war as a war of aggression ...
10 reads

Rwandan Cooking: onion salad with a dres ...

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:56:00 +0800

(Rwanda / en root rwanda)
This morning I went with Jenny to her resource family’s house centrally located near the market. Her mom had invited us for a cooking lesson. We headed to the market for produce and then set about ...
0 reads

One more week...

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:55:23 +0800

(Ecuador / Sebastian Becerra)
We find out in 5 days what our site assignments are and in one week we will depart to our sites for 2 weeks. I asked for a coastal region mostly due to my affinity for plantains and hot...
0 reads

Do You Pick Your Nose? Move To Kenya!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:49:00 +0800

(Kenya / Bridge to Kenya)
Some cultural norms I have notice so far…Picking your nose in public: Remember how much fun it was to pick ur nose when you were a kid? But every time someone got made and reprimanded you? We call i ...
21 reads

the final countdown!!!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:32:00 +0800

(Guyana / Once Upon a Blog...)
the final countdown till we move off the coast to the interior mountains. Yes our prayers were answered when they (peacecorps officials) gave us our first choice of where we wanted to live for the n ...
4 reads

Why Open Collaboration Spaces like the * ...

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:29:59 +0800

(Cameroon / 27 months)
Last week I attended the much anticipated iHub Nairobi launch as well as participated in a pre-launch gathering of African tech hub pioneers (more on the latter in a follow-up post). A number of blo ...
6 reads

The birthday holiday

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:26:07 +0800

(Ukraine / emmaandalex)
It turns out that birthdays are a Big Deal here in Ukraine. Ask a Ukrainian what their favorite holiday is and a lot of them will say “my birthday”. It’s been almost a year but ...
9 reads

Happy Birthday Brenna!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:26:00 +0800

(Guyana / The Quinlivans)
Happy 25th Baby Sister!I love you. Just wanted you to know.
5 reads

Hut life

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:19:00 +0800

(Zambia / under the mango trees...)
Well im here! Three weeks in and im loving it! Right now im chilling in my hut under my mosquito net listening to bbc and loving my internet phone. My days are spent learning bemba going to techni ...
38 reads

la routa maya weekend

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:07:00 +0800

(Belize / Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.)
Hey everyone! Just thought I'd share a few photos of my experience with the race last weekend...La Routa Maya is a canoe race that spans the width of Belize. Its a four day 180 mi. race that br ...
10 reads

Geotagging Experiment

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:05:56 +0800

(Kenya / Paul Blair in the Peace Corps)
Here are some pictures I’ve taken around town with my phone geotagged automatically and placed on a handy little Google Map: View Don’t Be Ragging On Geotagging in a larger map You can a ...
10 reads

Time standing still

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:53:00 +0800

(Kenya / Kenyan Freckle)
The past week while I was teaching P.E. outside with my class 5 kids I heard an airplane. I did not think to much about it oh how was I mistaken. Once the kids saw the plane it was chaotic. They were ...
11 reads

Giving to the World

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:47:00 +0800

(Togo / Hello Togo!)
With every push the woman’s veins bulged out of her chest and incredibly muscular arms. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her teeth gritted together as she employed all the oxygen she’d inhaled t ...
10 reads

World War Z

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:46:00 +0800

(Burkina Faso / Peace Corps Dave)
You know how when you move someplace new it takes some time to getused to the sounds. Well I've been here awhile. I'm used to theanimal noises - the pig squeals the guinea fowl cluck the ba ...
4 reads

Climbing Baru

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:28:54 +0800

(Panama / Peg and Gary)
Volcan Baru is a national park and protected area not far from where we live as the Tucan flies. On March 9th I received an invitation from Lourdes the leader of one of the local agro-environmental ...
8 reads

All it takes is a butterfly.

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:27:00 +0800

(Rwanda / And then I moved to Rwanda....)
(Note: Apologies in advance for the graphic details in what I’ve written below. It is what I’m experiencing here and I feel the need to share it but realize it might not be suitable for everyon ...
13 reads

Can yelling cause you to lose your voice?

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:26:00 +0800

(Ukraine / You look like a cucumber today.)
Classroom management is hard. One of the things that I'm least happy about in my life that Ukraine has done to me is that I've started to show more aggressive behavior... in a way. I have to be very s ...
0 reads

A new slideshow for Patty's Day

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:06:00 +0800

(Macedonia / Life is Calling...)
Free greeting card made with Smilebox
7 reads

Education as Social Capital

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:04:00 +0800

(Ukraine / You look like a cucumber today.)
Today I listened to "Why GDP Matters: Compare Jamaica to Barbados" on Planet Money. In the story the authors visit schools in similar environments in both countries. Jamaica's school struggles becaus ...
0 reads

Du Courage

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:02:00 +0800

(Benin / Krissy's latest adventure - Benin, West Africa)
(two blogs today read this one second...)Well as you already know if you have read any of my recent blogs I was in Cotonou Thursday-Saturday of this week for Kate’s memorial. It was a good time ...
1 reads

time or money

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:01:39 +0800

(Macedonia / life is calling)
During my time here I have met many young people. High school students young adults studying in college fresh college graduates searching for work the newly employed changing the face of businesses ...
3 reads

Finally! An update!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:56:00 +0800

(Kenya / The Road Less Traveled)
It's already March 14th. . . Wow. I have now lived in Kenya for four and a half months. Kenya is a nice place. It's peaceful and quiet and the people are friendly-- of course this applies mostly t ...
0 reads

My sister likes good music.

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:53:40 +0800

(Bulgaria / One of Three)
I’m a happy kid who had a happy weekend. And now all I want to do is sleep. Goodnight. Sleep tight.
9 reads

Untitled

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:28:00 +0800

(East Timor / Abril...more than just a month)
Every Kids Dream…So I was lucky enough to have cake for breakfast twice this week…I must be dreaming or something. I admit sometimes it still doesn’t feel real. After a quick chat on the interne ...
6 reads

Untitled

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:28:00 +0800

(Ecuador / Abril...more than just a month)
Every Kids Dream…So I was lucky enough to have cake for breakfast twice this week…I must be dreaming or something. I admit sometimes it still doesn’t feel real. After a quick chat on the interne ...
6 reads

In memory of Kate Puzey

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:24:00 +0800

(Benin / Krissy's latest adventure - Benin, West Africa)
Kate Puzey will never be forgotten.Friday March 12th marked the 1 year anniversary of the tragic death of Peace Corps Volunteer Catherine Puzey known to all as Kate in Badjoude Benin.I did not kn ...
3 reads